British ISP tells Cameron to sod off over X-rated filter proposal

Vyralize: British ISP Andrew & Arnold has responded to David Cameron’s push for Internet censorship in the UK by offering either unrestricted access to the net or the option to move to North Korea.
(Andrew & Arnold, Industry, Internet, Web)

I don't see a problem with it. They are blocking porn for people and if they still want to watch porn they can still do it by removing the restriction. This works well for porn addicts as they can continue their vice and it works well in protecting childred as mom and dad are unlikely to say "please let us watch porn".

Parental Controls and filters rarely work on computers and kids will easily get around them.(password is in mom's "hidden" drawer"

How can you fail to see the problem here? How many people do you think would be willing to try to convince their partner to agree to opt out of the block? How many fights and awkward moments do you think this will cause. Not to mention censorship of other things being much easier to implement if this goes through.

If parental filters rarely work, why on earth do you think this will? Kids these days aren't stupid, a good proportion of them know how to use proxies. This isn't going to protect kids from porn. This isn't going to remove vile content on the internet. All this is doing is allowing the government to step foot in territory which it really doesn't belong in.

Loads of things get blocked with a content lock. My phone for example has a built in content lock and I can't even check the lottery numbers for anyone without it blocking me. Can you imagine trying to tell my girlfriend I would like to enable porn on the Internet just to do something simple like check lottery numbers. This government has already proved it can be bought by big companies with the whole cigarette farce. Trust me this is just the start of a president.

@gravelord - Couldnt agree more (i was your only agree), really dont see it as a big deal.. People going on about "freedom" or "rights" are just idiots. We have censorship in many other areas of society, whats different here?

@abc123 - "Fights", "Awkward moments"? Are you kidding? people need to grow the f'k up. If you have to hide $hit from your partner like that, you're an idiot... Grow some balls. Learn to have a more honest relationship.. jeesh...

If only all relationships involved complete and utter honesty with neither partner having to hide anything from the other. Unfortunately that is not how it is in reality, grow up. Even if we ignore the tension this will cause, are you telling me that you're perfectly fine with censorship of the internet? What if further down the line this filter was extended to extreme views, or views which don't sit well with the government. Also, why exactly does the government feel that it is their duty to do what parents should be doing? This is just makes Britain into a nanny state. Hell, let's say that you're one of the idiots who is perfectly fine with all of the above, from a practical sense how can you think this will work? Several years ago filters had to be removed from hospitals because doctors couldn't access research on breast cancer, something similar will almost certainly happen with this, this will cause many problems and fix nothing

More people need to stand up against Cameron on this.. it's ridiculous. He then justifies it by like what every single damn politician does and uses children as a reference as to why they need to implement it.

What we need is a new political party here in the UK made up of nothing but clowns. Give us voters a way to vote our disgust at the fact that no matter who we get in, they're all a bunch of bloody clowns.

If you want to censor the porn on your internet, you should have to put it in writing to your ISP that you want it blocked. I'm sick of the lack of responsibility of a huge number of parents nowadays...they want everything to bend to their convenience rather than them having to do any leg work themselves. They don't like violent or sexual movies/TV shows? They want them all banned rather than actually taking steps to monitor what their kids are doing on a one to one level...you know, parenting them? That's too much like hard work for some, it seems...much easier to whine and bitch and try to sanatise the world around them.

@Racer-X Adding an additional barrier to overcome to watch pornography can only be a good thing. Hopefully most people are too embarrassed to ask the restriction to be removed...and rightfully so. Watching porn isn't something to be proud of. It's embarrassing. A sign of weakness and loneliness.

Can anyone really tell if someone is corrupt because of porn? I mean porn isn't necessary to watch. It's a vice mostly enjoyed by lonely people. If you are in a happy marriage or relationship, you don't need porn at all.

Kids can live without porn and so can adults. If it really is that important that you have access to porn then you should probably re-evaluate your life. I hope the USA does something similar.

I have been porn-free ever since I got into a steady relationship 2 years ago. I just don't need it.

What if your girlfriend enjoys porn as much as you do? Porn isnt pathetic. Its only pathetic if your entire life is structured around it. But the porn industry is pretty much the most profitable industry in the world next to oil. Thats saying that your theory pretty much implicated the entire planet is porn addicts who are desperate and lonely.

Not going to argue the facts that porn is about fantasies and escaping reality just like television or movies. Its entertainment. What I will argue is forcing people to live with your morals.. and putting it into law. I personally think you and your thoughts make me sick. So to say a law should be written in your favor and agaisnt the vast majority is a bit of a joke.

----------------------------- ------ Gravelord wrote in PM: (Only reposting it because he immediately blocked me from giving him a response lol.)

No, parents still make the final decisions. If a parent decides that they don't care if their child watches porn then its up to them to remove the restriction.

I think 99% of parents will be fine with this. Not everyone has the time to monitor their childs internet use or check if the browsing history has been cleared and have awkward conversations with their kids about how porn is wrong or dirty or whatever.

The government is doing parents and kids a service here. Only a porn addict would have a problem with this. ==============

@GraveLord

I think its not fair to the internet service provider. They dont make the porn. Your argument would have been better suited to say that all adult companies should be checking to see if your 18 or older before going to the website other wise the website could be blocked..

Which still i would be against cause i dont beleive in censorship at all.

Your asking a third party that has nothing to do with the situation or industry to police it... which is impossible I may add.

Simply stopping your children from using the internet unsupervised if you want to be a parent.

Like my content block on my phone, your giving free rein to the government to block what ever they feel is damaging as soon as they implement it you will get all the big money men saying this is damaging our business can you block it for us. Tv companys blocking football or tv series streamed from other countries, music etc.

Dude. I watch porn with my partner....loneliness, weakness..... ha, you really should get out more if those are your views. Porn can be many things for different people like alcohol..... good for some, bad for others....but at least porn kills far less people if any at all.

For the record I dont mind there being a sex lock/opt in barrier as many stupid stumble upon sites have stupid unrelated adds/popups that kids may click.

I'm a parent and I'm sickened by Cameron's approach to this issue. They're only doing it to score points with the tech-dumb demographic. Anyone who knows anything about the issues here realises it won't achieve any of what they're aiming for, and just causes a host of much worse problems.

We're going to end up a country of people on encrypted VPNs if the govt keep blocking and making things inconvenient, which SURELY has much worse implications for real issues like crime. They're being so short sighted it's infuriating,

we dont allow kids to BUY porn, we keep stuff on top shelves and covered and yet people think its ok for children to have unfettered access to porn by merely clicking a mouse button? The nation needs SOME censorship, you naysayers are f$kin idiots for thinking otherwise. You have to protect the ignorant and stupid parents from themselves.. There are some things which kids just shouldn't see until they are ready and people that disagree are probably kids themselves...

Its simple - block it at ISP level, IF you want it, get it unblocked. It really isnt a big deal. I myself love porn, if my isp blocked it i would simply ask for it to be unblocked.

Censorship isnt a dirty word. Its what allows children to grow up in a reasonable world...

If children have access to porn by merely clicking a mouse button, then it's not the internet's fault, nor the isp's fault.. it's the parents fault for not taking responsibility and putting appropriate filters up themselves.

Blocking porn at an ISP level is ridiculous not to mention the unnecessary problems it could potentially cause for guys who want to watch a bit of porn behind their wives back who aren't techie enough to know how to get around these filters.

At the end of the day, it's the parent's responsibility, end of story and it should stay that way.

I could apply that logic to many things to do with child care that are for more damaging when neglected than internet porn. Regardless, I still don't think that gives the government the right to censor the internet because of an extremely small minority.

My way of ensuring that kids don't look at inappropriate material in my home is to have my tower set-up right next to my TV. Also due to the fact that my flat is mostly concrete, its impossible to do Wi-Fi connections on my tablet from any other room than the front room :) problem solved at my end. Thanks a lot Cam ;-) but your help ain't needed in my home.

This whole discussion is silly. Young and horny teenagers have been finding ways to get to pornographic materials since there were only stone statues and woodcarvings.

Children don't get corrupted by porn, they don't get corrupted by video games, they don't get corrupted by violence in movies. It's been researched over and over again.

Some perverts watched porn, others have been shielded from it throughout their youth. Raising children is a complicated issue that cannot be solved with 'one solution for all'-measures. You don't forbid your kid from riding a bike because he might fall, you are there when he falls to comfort him and make sure he's all right. I'm obviously not advocating giving inappropriate material to children (to be clear), but let them explore as teenagers do, and have always done, and be there in case it goes wrong.

This country is turning into a Mary Whitehouse state full off PC(political correctness) idiots. You just have to look over the pond at our US cousins to see how meddling in internet censorship has caused millions of people to throw up there arms in protest. Porn is just the pre cursor, what will follow? Will we be blocked from looking at other things as well. My old mobile provider also blocked porn as well, but it also blocked access to me logging into the National Lottery website due to it???? Being a parent, i understand that porn and other sites need to be blocked from young eyes, but it is the responsibility of parents to make sure children do not go onto these sites. There are literately hundreds of programmes out there that will block access to certain sites or keywords, i work in an IT department for a large corporation and we have set up blocks to certain sites and keywords. A friend of mine uses a programme that emails her whenever her son tries to access blocked sites on his laptop. it's not a hard thing to setup. The government needs to stop treating us like kids, we should have the option to contact our ISP and ask for a block on certain sites and Keywords.

the begining of the end?These filthy sites are a plague upon my eye. Do me a favor. Anything sir. Call up those guys in Washington and have them lobby up more laws for our protection. Sir? I want those cheapskates to remember who's in charge here. The people... sir? Hahahaaha What ever gave you that idea son. No... it's us the providers and don't you forget it.